


Force of Nature

by rhodrymavelyne



Series: Sisterhood of the Witchblade [6]
Category: Angel: the Series, Dead Like Me, Witchblade (TV), Wonderfalls
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:09:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24740575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodrymavelyne/pseuds/rhodrymavelyne
Summary: Destiny walks into The Waffle House in the form of a couple of distinctive women, ready to rock George...and Jaye's worlds even more, much to Rube's irritation. While George notices all of this, someone is noticing George.
Relationships: Daisy Adair/Mason, Jaye Tyler/George Lass, Jaye Tyler/Sara Pezzini, Sara Pezzini/George Lass
Series: Sisterhood of the Witchblade [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1129541





	Force of Nature

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of my ongoing story, Sisterhood of the Witchblade, in which Kate Lockley is Sara Pezzini's long-lost sister, connected to both Sara and the Witchblade. Nor is she the only member of this sisterhood, something Jaye Tyler and now George Lass are starting to find out, something George shares in her own words at the beginning, before we switch to Jaye's perspective and finally Clancy Lass. I don't own Dead Like Me, Witchblade, Angel, or Wonderfalls. They're just borrowing me and my imagination. :)

She moved like a force of nature through the bar, tossing her dark head of hair back like a lion’s mane. Never mind that lionesses don’t have manes. This chick did what she wanted, the very air seeming to part for her.

“You’re drooling, Georgia.” Prim and disapproving, Daisy’s voice cut through my reverie. 

“Can you blame her?” Roxy, bless her, backed me in my moment of bisexuality. “That woman is bad and hot.”

“Bad, very likely. Hot is debatable.” Daisy thinned her lips in disapproval, folding her hands in front of her in a tight-grasp. “That bracelet she’s wearing really doesn’t go with those loose jeans and the leather jacket.” She leaned forward to glower at Roxy and myself. “I’ll bet she wears men’s underwear.”

“Some chicks don’t need lingerie.” Roxy nodded at the woman, who strode out of the Waffle House. “I’ll bet that one is hip deep in guys and she doesn’t have to try.”

“I’ll bet she has no interest in guys.” Daisy sniffed. “She’s practically one of the boys herself.” 

“Aw, don’t feel threatened, Daisy!” Mason smiled brightly at Daisy, trying too hard as usual. “I’m not looking at anyone else but you.”

“Thanks for small favors, Mason,” Daisy forced a bright smile at our vagabond reaper, not that I was paying attention to their conversation. I was sliding out of the booth. I was walking in the same direction the biker went.

“George.” There was a warning tone in Rube’s voice, but I wasn’t listening. I was walking, not really paying attention. Perhaps this is why I collided with the dark-haired girl in the fluffy coat. 

“Excuse you!” We said it almost at once, perfectly in irritated synch, only to stare at each other, startled out of our irritation. 

She wasn’t much taller than me, pretty, with long, straight dark hair, otherwise ordinary, except she carried a tiny wax lion in a clenched fist. Her eyes were a very deep blue, reflective and with a hint of mischief twinkling in their depths. 

“I mean, excuse me.” The girl was unused to being polite or interacting with other people. At least not willingly. She tried to smile and ended up wincing. 

“It’s OK.” I smiled back, only to have my lips twist into a grimace of sympathy. Talk about instant empathy. “I’m guessing you have to ask me something, even though you’ve rather not.”

“It’s that obvious?” The other girl’s face relaxed entirely into something less uncomfortable. 

“Only the socially uninclined.” I shrugged, smiling the smile I often wore around Dolores, hoping I’d get away with the honesty. 

“You wouldn’t happen to know that imposing biker woman who was just here, would you?” The stranger gave me a side glance. 

“I only just noticed her.” I shrugged. “She seems like someone cool.” Someone with a purpose. Someone utterly unlike me. 

The stranger opened her mouth, ready to say something more, only Rube interrupted. 

“Just who do you think you are?” He placed a hand upon my shoulder, pulling me back from the stranger. “What do you think you’re doing?”

It wasn’t the strange girl who answered, but the tiny wax lion in her hand. I kid you not. It opened its little mouth and said, “Get a life.” 

My own mouth dropped open. “How is that possible?” I looked from the lion to the girl. “That lion just spoke! It doesn’t even have a larynx?”

“I know, right?” The stranger nodded emphatically before stopping to stare at me. Her own jaw dropped. This synchonicity was getting downright weird if there wasn’t enough weirdness already. “Wait, you heard it speak? Really?” 

“What are you talking about?” It was Roxy. At some point during all this, she’d gotten up to move beside Rube and me. “Who just spoke?”

“Get a life,” the lion repeated, turning its tiny wax head in a way that should have been impossible. 

“That!” I pointed at the tiny figure in the strange girl’s hand.

“Honey, no one’s talking other than you, me, Rube, and this strange chick.” Roxy gave the ‘strange chick’ a pointed look. “If that lion had talked, I would have heard it.”

“But it just did!” I cried, pointing a finger at the miniature. 

The girl gazed at me, blue eyes widening. “You heard it, you really did. Someone else can hear them.”

“Never mind that.” Rube didn’t even look at me, Roxy, or the lion. His attention focused itself on the strange girl. “I asked you what you’re doing.”

“I came here to find someone.” The girl gazed at me in confusion. “Only I’m no longer sure whom that is.”

“Look.” Rube softened his voice. “I know you’ve got a job to do.” For a moment he glanced at the lion. “Right now you’re interfering with my job and my employees.” He tighened his fingers on my shoulder. 

“Rube, what are you doing?” I squirmed in his grip. 

At that exact moment, a graveling chose to run up the side of the wall of the Waffle House. It bared its teeth at the lion. 

The strange girl stared at the graveling, blue eyes widened. “What the hell is that?”

“You can see it?” All right, I was talking too much, especially when Rube was here, ready to lift me and shake me, but this was too weird. 

“All right, this is too weird.” Once again, this girl said exactly what I was thinking.“Who are you, what is that thing, and how can you hear the lion?”  
She reached out to grab my hand, taking no notice of Rube or anyone else. She had only eyes for me. “Are you an angel?” Her voice took on a note of desperate panic or maybe desperate hope. I’d heard it often in the souls I’d just reaped but this was different. “Are you a devil? Just who are you?”

I wasn’t sure how to answer, not that Rube was going to let me.  
“Enough.” He released my shoulder and grabbed my arm. “I don’t know what you and your bosses are planning but George is no longer part of it. Stop bothering my reapers with your destiny crap.” 

“Wait, what?” I wanted to argue, but Rube was already dragging me out the door. 

****

Jaye Tyler watched the formidable man pull away the one person who’d ever seen what she saw, the one person who might be able to prove that she wasn’t crazy. She opened her mouth to protest, turned to give chase, only to have a hand seize her. 

“Uh uh.” The equally formidable female police officer squeezed her arm, exuding menace. “Honey, you are one freaky chick. Keep that freaky to yourself.”

She released Jaye only to stalk after the man and the strange girl.

Jaye opened her mouth and closed it, unsure if she should argue with a cop, unsure if she wanted any more trouble with them. She looked straight into the eyes of a lean, smiling man with tawny hair and entirely too appreciative eyes. 

“Personally I’ve always found freaky to be hot,” he began with a tiny smile, only the blonde haired model? Actress? Someone entirely well-dressed and arrogant grabbed him by the arm, pulling him right after the cop. 

Jaye watched the entire party leave, looked at the spot where the ugly little monster had been. It was gone. 

“Talk about being made unwelcome,” she muttered to the lion in her hand, no longer sure if she cared how crazy she sounded. Everyone in this restaurant appeared to be crazy already. 

“You’re not unwelcome.”

Jaye turned around, half-expected more funny little monsters or a badly rendered illustration to be speaking. 

It turned out to be a young girl with fair hair sitting at a booth with an older man Jaye guessed was the girl’s father. The girl smiled, a cool, reserved expression and scooted over in her booth. 

“Come sit with us.” The girl nodded at the man across from her. “He’s buying.” 

“Reggie!” The man gave the girl a reproachful look before shooting an apologetic one at Jaye. “She may not want to join us.” 

“I’d love to.” Jaye shot her sweetest smile at both the girl and her father. “All right if I order the waffles?”

“Quite all right,” the man said, giving her a tight smile not nearly as welcoming as his daughter’s. “Kiffany?”

A stocky, dark waitress, who reminded Jaye of a much more friendly version of a social worker who once interrogated her, walked over to the table with a smile. 

“Waffles all around. The traditional set.” The man stared at her as if daring her to say something else. “That’s all right, isn’t it?”

“Fine.” Jaye smiled back at him, the waitress, and the girl, feeling anything but welcome. 

“Anything else?” Kiffany ignored the tension like a pro. 

“Orange juice. Three of them.” Once again the man stared at her, silently challenging her to contradict him. 

“Great.” If Jaye smiled any more, her face would split. 

Kiffany departed, leaving the table and its occupants to their uneasy selves. 

“So just who was that girl?” The youngster next to Jaye leaned closer, studying Jaye intently. “The one you were talking to?” 

“I have no idea.” Jaye forced her smile to widen. God, it hurt. “I noticed we had a mutual fascination with women on motorcycles, so it might be worth striking up a conversation.” She laughed a little at her own joke, even though it wasn’t entirely a joke. 

The girl grinned, seeming like it. “I’m Reggie.”

Reggie’s father grimaced. He clearly didn’t. “Clancy Lass.”

“Jaye Tyler,” Jaye responded, even though she wasn’t sure if she should have given her real name. Too much honesty could be hazardous to one’s health. 

Or maybe the truth would be liberating. “Actually for a moment, I thought that girl might be the one person weirder than myself, but the old man was weirder.

“Old man are always weird,” Reggie said with the assurance of a pre-teen who knew how it was. 

“Thanks,” Clancy Lass said with the sarcasm of the parent of a pre-teen whose patience was already frayed. 

“The girl’s name is Milly. The old man is Rube.” Reggie leaned a little closer to Jaye. “They’re here most mornings, along with the other two.”

“Really?” Jaye was touched and a bit uneasy by Reggie’s attitude. Just what did this kid want? She didn’t seem like the type of girl who usually asked strangers to sit with her in a restaurant. 

“Really. I’ve been trying to learn more about them, especially Milly.” Reggie glanced at her father. “That’s why I’ve been coming to the Waffle House for breakfast on Sundays.” 

“I thought you wanted to come here to spend time together?” Clancy gave his daughter another reproachful look. 

“Sorry, Dad.” Reggie didn’t sound apologetic, even though she looked down for a moment. 

If the tension got any worse, Jaye might start spasming in her seat. “Stalking can be a valid way of expressing familial bonds,” she tried. “My brother and I once stalked this weirdo at my trailer park, which may sound strange, but I think it brought the two of us closer together.” 

Reggie giggled at this. Clancy did not. Thankfully Kiffany chose that moment to show up with waffles and orange juice. 

“Is there anything else I can get you?” The waitress glanced from person to person. “Mr. Lass, are you all right?”

“Just fine. Absolutely perfect.” Clancy Lass smiled through clenched teeth. 

“You know, much as I appreciate the waffles, I’d better go.” If Jaye had to sit at this table any longer with this man glowering at her, she might scream. She slammed a wad of bills on the table. “This should cover it.” 

Avoiding the man’s gaze, she slid out of the booth, only for Reggie to reach out and touch her arm. 

“Nice meeting you.” The young girl offered her a shy smile, full of awkward sweetness. Clearly she didn’t smile often.

Oddly touched, Jaye smiled back. “You, too, Reggie.” She glanced at Clancy. 

He nodded, forcing his mouth into something that might have been a smile. “Drive carefully wherever you’re going.” 

“I will, thanks.” Jaye turned and left the restaurant before there could be any more awkwardness. As she went, she muttered to the tiny lion in her hand, “What the hell was all that?”  
“A lone wolf needs her sister.” The lion repeated the cryptic phrase which sent her chasing a strange woman out of her store. 

“Right.” Jaye headed for her car, hoping things wouldn’t get more awkward. Not that this was likely. 

****

“Well, that was a waste of waffles.” Clancy Lass gave Jaye’s untouched plate a mournful look. “Just what did you think you were doing, asking that strange girl to sit with us?” 

“You sound like Mom.” Reggie gazed at the platter of waffles, the butter melting on top of them. 

“I brought you here so we could spend time together.” Clancy stabbed a forkful of food, put it in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. “Not so you could pick up girls.” 

Reggie didn’t deny his accusation. “Like it’s any better than picking them up in the classroom.”

Clancy had had it. His mouth got the better of his common sense. “For your information, she was the one who picked up me. And she was nice. It was nice being appreciated, especially after constantly having my flaws picked out by everyone at home.”

Reggie didn’t say anything. She just picked at her waffle, not looking at him. 

Clancy instantly regretted his outburst. Reggie was just a kid, but why did all the women in his life have to be so difficult? So hard to please? Was it really so strange to give in to a chance to make a woman happy, even if she a grad student and not part of his family? 

He stared down at his own waffle plate, unable to find an answer. He watched the butter melt in between the tiny squares instead.

**Author's Note:**

> The line, "It doesn't even have a larynx!" is a nod to Jaye's own reaction to the wax lion talking in the very first episode of Wonderfalls: Wax Lion. "You don't have a larynx!" Hence the sympathy and empathy. :)


End file.
